meetinghouse

n.
A building used for public meetings and especially for Protestant or Quaker religious services.

Reserving "church" to designate a covenanted ecclesiastical society, New England Puritans used "meetinghouse" to denote the assembly place used for church services, town meetings, and other public gatherings. Church membership was restricted, but attendance at church services was mandatory. Services included baptisms, sermons, prayers, psalm singing, and funerals for notable persons. Typically a white frame structure, the early square meetinghouse, with a central tower, gave way to an oblong style with an end tower topped by a spire. The pulpit dominated the simple but dignified interior. In much of New England, taxes as well as pew receipts supported the meetinghouses' religious activities. In late colonial times the meetinghouse became a center of revolutionary activities.

Bibliography

Donnelly, Marian C. The New England Meeting Houses of the Seventeenth Century. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1968.

Von Rohr, John. The Shaping of American Congregationalism, 1620–1957. Cleveland, Ohio: Pilgrim Press, 1992.

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a building for religious assembly (especially Nonconformists (e.g. Quakers))
  Synonym: conventicle

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - mødehus (især for kvækere)

Nederlands (Dutch)
bedehuis

Français (French)
n. - temple, maison de Dieu, lieu de rencontre

Deutsch (German)
n. - Bethaus

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ευκτήριος οίκος

Italiano (Italian)
luogo di riunione

Português (Portuguese)
n. - templo (m)

Русский (Russian)
молитвенный дом

Español (Spanish)
n. - templo, lugar de reunión

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - bönehus

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
教会, 礼拜堂

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 教會, 禮拜堂

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 공회당

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 礼拝堂, 非国教徒の礼拝堂

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مكان الاجتماعات‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮בית תפילה, בייחוד של קוויקרים‬

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